Spatial Variability of Ecophysiological and Production Components in Irrigated Noble Garlic

Abstract

Among agricultural components, crop ecophysiological parameters play an essential role in garlic growth and yield. This study aimed to characterize the structure and spatialization of garlic crop parameters, evaluating spatial correlations among yield, lateral shoot growth, and plant ecophysiological components. These consisted of intercellular CO2 concentration, stomatal conductance, transpiration, water-use efficiency, carboxylation efficiency, photosynthetically active radiation, relative humidity around leaves, relative humidity in leaves, air temperature, leaf temperature, vapor pressure deficit, and water content in the air and leaves. Our results showed that irrigated purple garlic yield, lateral shoot growth, and ecophysiological components are spatially dependent. A cross-semivariogram between plant ecophysiological parameters showed negative spatial correlations and spatial dependence, with a coefficient of determination (r 2 ) above 0.730. These findings indicate a close correlation between garlic yield and lateral shoot growth with the ecophysiological parameters studied. In short, purple garlic production had a high inter-spatial correlation with plant transpiration and water contents in the air and leaves.